Counsel for Adra Dragon

[claudius]

I tried a few times with level 13 party: Eder, Maneha, Zahua (front row) and Durance, the Grieving Mother, and Rogue Main Character who uses 4 weapon slots for 2 guns and 2 one handed melee cleanup.  I'm playing on Normal difficulty setting.

I was surprised how much huge amount of damage not to mention status the Adra dragon did to me.  The first plan was to have Durance and others try to accelerate buffing but I never even got off a first round Crowns of the Faithful and very soon had 2 dead and 4 almost dead and wasn't able to recover.  So it appeared the strategy of staying all packed in a small radius and out buffing (then start debuff) did not work too well.  So I tried again with more spreading out and also died.  I lasted longer but didn't quite look promising to just reload and wait for RNG.

I'm going to think about it more today and tomorrow.  I went back to a save before climbing down to where the Adra dragon is and I looked at my inventory and stash and crafting options.  I made 6 Bulwarks versus Elements and looked at everyones Lore level and choose potions, summoning items, and food that they can eat.  I crafted some more scrolls like against fear and more defenses and moon well,  Maybe try Maelstrom and Paralyze for the Grieving Mother when she doesn't have Focus.  I still need to finish up that process and make sure people have enough healing potions options and other ideas.

I figure if it is still out of reach I will try to do more quests in Act 3 to level up or start WM2.  Maybe try the Alpine Dragon (haven't fought yet)?

Edited January 22, 2020 by claudius

[Boeroer]

First things first: drop some summons crom figurines in the path of the dragon to buy some casting time.

Next cast Prayer against fear (Durance). The Dragon terrifies with an aura and no defense (unless super maxed out Will) can prevent you from getting grazed at some point. Terrify will lower your accuracy a ton (-20) which is especially bad against bosses with high defenses.

Buff ACC with Durance. Devotions + Inspiring Radiance asap. 

Then: Adra Dragon is not immune to mind control. I find the Adragans (are there any on normal diff.?) more annoying than the dragon itself. If you charm her she will not only destroy them for you but also Charm is a hefty debuff. In order to charm you can cast Tactical Meld onto Edér while he's attacking the Dragon and then use Whisper of Treason or Munacra Arret (if you don't have enough focus).  

This should give you +50 ACC (Devotions or Borrowerd Instinct + Tactical Meld + Radiance) for Grieving Mother's Whisper of Treason (which itself has a +10 ACC if I'm not mistaken). 

If you use Tactical Meld on Edér you can also prone the dragon rel. reliably. Same with Zahua with Force of Anguish - althoug it might be better to use his dichotomous summons to distract the dragon. One thing that works very well in that fight is the Long Pain. It has tremendous ACC values which helps a lot against targets you want to hit hard and reliably but don't want to get too close. All active monk abilites (including Force of Aguish) can be used with the Long Pain.  

Maneha can be used to care for the Xaurip ads etc.. Against dragons Barbarians aren't particularly helpful but hey can clear trash really quickly.

Oce you can reliably charm and later prone the dragon when you need to it's a cakewalk. Marking weapons on Edér (Shame or Glory or Cladhaliath or Blade of the Endless Paths or Spectacular Spetum) will give Grieving Mother another +10 ACC for her charms.

I think you lack a bit of CC optios for all the ads though. A Wizard or Druid would be nice to have. Grieving Mother can do the same with Amplified Wave or Ringleader and such (very good powers) - but not if she's constantly trying to charm the dragon and will struggle with focus gain anyway.

In my optinion the Alpine Dragon is harder than the Adra Dragon. But since the place is more crowded you can often manage to place enemies between you and him. The problem with lpine Dragon is that he has Sneak Attack + Deathblows. So you don't want to get hit by two afflictions and then tank him... Also here charm + prone work very well. The only dragon who can't be charmed is one oth the two bog dragons (can't remember which one). Which isn't a problem because there's another one and as long as they fight each other you can smile and clap.

If you haven't already done it I would start with the Sky Dragon since that's the easiest one of the bunch.

 

Edited January 22, 2020 by Boeroer

[claudius]

I still haven't attempted again.  Just considering the above advice first which was appreciated.  I am planning on using this tough difficulty spike to study my spell lists and abilities.

A couple of questions.  When you say 'buff devotions' does that mean the priest spell "Devotions for the faithful"?  I don't have all of the abilities mentioned.  Missing on Zahua Force of Anguish, Long pain, and Dichotomous Summons.  Not sure of I have tactical Meld which is I think a Cipher ability that I haven't needed thus far because usually can just out accelerate the 'boss fights" with buffing ie no dragon breath and tail/wing etc.

Good idea to use Maneha to a purpose of controlling Dragons friends and I can give her level 3 scrolls.  I am thinking to switch Zahua's boots of speed to her giving her +3 speed and Zahua will have +3 instead of +6 (boots +3, +1 talent, +2 ability)..  Then those two can run to where needed.  If the dragon comes after them then maybe can distract it by running away and potioning could give the others some time.

I'm going to examine weapons again.  Thusfar I haven't had a challenge like this dragon so I'll have to notice which properties will be important like raising ACC (marking) for Whispers and Knockdown.

I thrashed the sky dragon with what I consider my conventional tactics.  Looks like Adra is Burn and Shock immune.  High Fortitude defense.  Immune: stuck, frighten, terrify, petrify.

Ok going to identify strategies on each team member.  See what can be cast before combat.  Maybe use some of the dozens and dozens of traps I have saved up.

[Boeroer]

Most important part is the Prayer and buffing up your parties ACC via Inspiring Radiance and Devotions for the Faithful. You can also cast Champion's Boon on Grieving Mother (for Whispers). It does +6 PER and that means another stackable +6 ACC. 

[claudius]

Victory!

Ok after studying abilities etc shuffling gear etc I got to near the dragon with all consumable slots organized and lots of food (chicken, beef, jerky, and pie) x6 eat up.  Put a priest level 2 spell of sealing and a trap from my rogue.  At dialogue with Adra Dragon everyone ate a Bulwark potion and retreated behind traps.  Nobody injured/prone by wing buffet except Eder and Zahua and they have passive healing.  The Dragon and Adragans advanced on them.

The retreated people summoned some allies Adra Beetle to distract from finishing off Eder and Zahua.  Durance granted a Crown of Faithful and Aspiring Aggrandizing Radiance.  Meanwhile Maneha was wielding the Blade of the Endless paths (marking) and she cast two buffs while durance was buffing.  One for the whole team from scroll to enhance defenses.  My MC Rogue cast protection from fear and he was wielding a wand (that not usually use) because it had marking.  He also cast his spell that buffs up all his stats as being a main character to go to Act 3.  The Grieving Mother also made use of the 2 rounds not sure maybe a scroll of valor?

Then we readvanced with Maneha and my Rogue MC using marking weapons soon the Grieving Mother hit with Whispers of Treason and got over 20 seconds of Charm.  While the Adra Dragon killed Adragans and other enemies our crew healed, buffed, helped kill Xaurips and Adragans.

So at this point we are a highly buffed team facing a lone Adra Dragon.  My MC shot with his unqique blunderbuss leadspitter and scored a Blindness critical hit which gave 20 seconds blindness.  Then critical hit with a withering attack his other uqique gun forgiveness (sneak/deathblow) for more massive damage.  He then spammed One handed melee attacks with Resoultion (durganned and cold lash).  He was the MVP in terms of dealing damage.   Everyone else made use of their time (example Durance resurrected the Grieving Mother) and by this point the battle was already decided.  Victory and DING level up to level 14!

Edited January 23, 2020 by claudius

[davoker]

The first time I came to it with level 11, without having played the expansions, only with the equipment that you can cope with in the base game, my main was a cipher (cipher and druid are now my favorite classes) melee two-handed (complicated to wear, but once you get used to it, it's amazing).

Eder, Pallegina, Durador, Kana, Aloth and my cipher.

I do not exaggerate anything when I say that I was hours and hours, many hours, many attempts and always dying, in fact I created a thread here asking how I could kill this dragon xD

For me the key is in the buffs for the group and the debuffs for the dragon, once I got into the head that I had to use buffs, it took me less than 2 minutes to kill her, 2 minutes counting that more than half of that time they were buffs / debuffs, the remaining time is what it took to kill her hahaha

PS: Not all the fighting comes out the same, other times I have reached it with level 14, after killing Concenhault (even though I didn't use the hammer or anything, I just had more level) and throw myself 9 minutes to kill her xD

I hope it is understood, my English is a bit basic :S